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"... actually did carry much in the way of essential hardware such as fans, heatsync compound, screws, and other misc things."

In Portland, Oregon the closing of CompUSA stores will mean that the retail Fry's store has no competition in selling the more unusual items. Since Fry's is very adversarial toward its customers, in my opinion, that will mean prices will rise.

My experience is that Com-pooza is horrible, though.

Both stores sell cables for more than $20 that cost less than $2 wholesale.

My criterion for buying something in the U.S. is it must be a steal (50% off the Canadian price is my usual target), or just plain unobtainable in Canada. This applies to all things, not just cars.

New cars from the U.S. can be difficult, because dealers often have franchise agreements that only permit them to sell to U.S. customers. Used cars are another matter, and then the RIV folks get involved. Consider also dealer support: a Canadian dealer may not be thrilled with providing warranty coverage on a U.S. car.

Buying cars from other countries gets even more interesting. My van is imported from Japan and has metric instrumentation, which a U.S. import will not have.

Computer stuff is actually cheaper in Vancouver than in Seattle, unless you hit a sale at Fry's.

...laura

Can't blame the editors. The claim regarding resistance to EMP is a direct quote from (the ad copy embedded in the middle of) TFA. Morever, what TFA has to say about the film and EMP is that it is "capable of minimizing radio interference and even...EMP." They don't say block it, they say minimize it. The effective frequency range of the film is 10 Hz. up to "just shy of visible light" so I'd say they at least have a shot at it.

Now, EMP is what, again? Oh, yeah, Electro-Magnetic Pulse. Put another way, a really, really strong blast of RF interference. Anything that can completely block cell phone and wifi signals will at least somewhat hold back EMP. TFA goes on to say that one of the things that makes the film so effective is that it's part of a completely package. The film is only one component of what you're buying. Sounds like they probably retrofit the building with some kind of Faraday cage-like gear.

EMP doesn't melt plastic, it fry's electronics. Well, if you were so close to the hypocenter that the EMP could melt a 2 mm plastic film on the window, that would be the least of your problems, because if you didn't get vaporized at about the same time, the shockwave that arrived shortly thereafter would blow you, the window, and maybe the wall to the other side of the room.

The EMP they are trying to guard against is the high air burst kind (think huge warhead detonated in LEO over the US east coast) which is intended to take down electrical grids, telephone networks, and as much of everything else electronic as it can. A lot of Soviet (and presumably now Russian) scenarios included such an air burst as an early shot. Get one of those in position undetected and detonate it and you're then in a position to do a couple of things, such as:

1. Get the other side on the hot line (if it still works, anyway) and tell them "We know we blew your comm capability and you have two minutes to decide to surrender or not
2. As soon as it detonates, launch a first strike to make sure. If you sufficiently damaged their command and control systems, they won't get many, if any, shots off before your warheads hit their ground-based nuclear assets at the same time your hunter-killer subs are engaging their boomers wherever they can find them

If you have your buildings protected to the best possible extent by EMP shielding such as that stuff, it might allow you to launch in such a scenario before the other side does. You'd pretty much have to, because the EMP would fry the recon sats that would normally tell you if they were launching or not. You'd have to assume they were.

At least gimme a Fry's index, although some people would consider that "points off".

Real geeks use Fry's.
Uber-geeks use HPC.

Do you happen to live in CA? I've heard some good stuff about Fly's Electronics, this is the first tyme I've heard anything negative. Looking at their location and hours webpage I see they're only in 9 states and I'm not in any of them. One place I loved to go to when I lived in FL was Skycraft. Parts weren't always where they were supposed to be but their employees knew both electronics and where you would find the parts you needed.

It's an effect of the social and educational shift of our populace having zero interest in the technology behind all the gadgets they're using.

On mailing lists and other web-based electronics forums, the majority of people truly interested and BUILDING things with electronics are not hobbyists, they're engineers who also tinker with electronics in their spare time or as a second job.

Slashdot is probably not a good cultural place to ask this, but...

When was the last time you really repaired a piece of electronics? Was it worth it?

RadioShack stocked parts when it was common for any handyman to attempt to fix their home electronics. With costs down, and complexity up to the point where you need a hot-air soldering station to work on surface-mount technology/boards, and schematics published by manufacturers and given out with the equipment a complete relic of the distant past, no one repairs anything anymore unless they have formal training or have absolutely nothing to lose in trying.

Other things hurt the "old" RadioShack model also, like the proliferation of places like DigiKey and Mouser Electronics where you can order small parts in quantity cheaper than you could ever get them at RatShack, and have them delivered to your door next-day.

I'm amazed Fry's still sells oscilloscopes, really... and impressed.

Although their service is crappy, their advertisements are misleading, and half the stuff on the shelves has been returned, Fry's is a reasonable alternative to Radio Shack.

They stock a lot more components than Rat Shack, and have a variety of tools there too.

That's without a DVD-ROM or any Software except XP Home (the Mac comes with the full version of OSX not a cut down version).

So you've got to add XP-Pro (at least), DVD-ROM, Quicken 2005, Office and a Video editing suite

*then* start comparing prices.

To quote Colonel Potter, "HORSE HOCKEY". Stop wasting everybody's time justifying a price with features some of us don't care about.

I'm a Mac fan. Let me go on the record as saying that. If I want to compare prices between an entry Mac and a Shuttle, but I don't need an expensive OS, a DVD-ROM, Quicken, a paid for Office suite or any video editing suite, I can just walk down to Fry's Electronics, find a Shuttle I like and look up the price of a system that meets my needs. I don't need to add software just to compare, I'm a consumer! I can compare entry Mac against entry PC any way I want! If the Mac comes with stuff I don't need, it's wasted resource and there's no value. In economic circles, I'm paying the opportunity cost, but not getting the benefit -- a loss in economic efficiency.

Compare what you want with a Minimac. I'll compare the OS that I prefer (MacOS X) against my favorite PC OS (Debian unstable) on some low end hardware and you can bet I won't add in the software for the Shuttle that I don't care about. MacOSX plus my percieved quality of a Mac are alone worth doubling the cost to get up to $499 + the cost of enough memory to actually do something.

You're talking like the idiots who say the only way to compare the cost of a new Mac with a customizable video card (read as PowerMac G5) is to compare with a dual Xeon with XP Pro and all the wizbang whistles added on, when all I want is a nice single processor Athlon with a top of the line nVidia processor and a gig of RAM. If you're not using those features (I don't need wireless, I have CAT5e just fine and don't get me started on charging everybody for optical sound when so few of us care), leave them out! Don't be an idiot and start adding useless features to justify a purchase!

Add up the price of the features YOU WANT for each platform. Acknowledge any value increase the software or hardware of either platform in your features and prices, then make an educated decision. For me, a new Mac with OSX is worth far more than the $129 upgrade price Apple charges, and that goes into it. Style is worth something, too, but recent PCs have come part way. There aren't many PCs that are as beautiful and functionally aesthetic as the PowerMac G5, and that may be worth something too.

I'll probably be picking up a Minimac in a year with the VGA to S-Video adapter ($19) to be my home entertainment system. I don't care about Quicken, Office or video editing (for chrissake, who the hell has time for that crap?), I just want VLC and a Mac on my TV. Around that time, my 1GHz PowerBook G4 may also be due for an upgrade, and I'll take advantage of eBay and the value retention of the Mac -- another value add of the platform for me.

>>Businesses like BestBuy take returns in the first place as a courtesy
>>to customers, because it's something people expect from large stores.
>
>Well, close. It's because of competition.

Which is exactly why I avoid places like CompUSA and their stupid restocking fee return policy. I'll gladly pay extra elsewhere (e.g., Fry's, Circuit City) than put up with a 15% restocking fee because the item purchased is incompatible, poor quality or doesn't work well.

How about a DVD portable with a 7" screen? Digix DVD seen at Fry's on sale for as low as $249, Reg priced at $349.99 that is one option, there is also the Archos though a tad pricey, at around $550. Then you have PDA's for $300 - $500. There are several others as well, check this link out Search results

Why? Because using nVidia's drivers in any OS is a lot like sucking raw shit through a very thin straw. Some revisions simply won't compile. They refuse to release drivers for Linux 2.6. Tech support is nonexistant.

Fuck nVidia, I can't wait for the stock market to ruin them like it ruined @Home.

Fry's is also in other reputable locations:

Oh and I'm not trying to nitpick. Just a public service announcement aimed at geeks with cash to burn.

No, but you could get it at Fry's!

The server seems to be on the way out...

For those of you who may not be aware, Fry's Electronics has been selling a Linux desktop PC loaded with ThizLinux for quite a while now. The question is, are they really selling it? The answer is a definitive no.

First of all, their sales staff has no idea how to run Windows, let alone Linux. In reality, I didn't expect anything less from that caliber of employee. What are you going to do? Let's put it this way... I live in Las Vegas and have been to that Fry's location on more than one occasion and stood by while a salesman, approached with questions from a customer, stuttered and spit trying to come up with answers. They usually just end up blurting to the customer that the machine is "just NOT Windows". Nice sales pitch.

To top that award winning sales pitch off, the customer is staring at a KDM login screen which has it's default language set to Chinese. Don't get me wrong, Chinese is a fine language, but hardly appropriate sitting on display in the Las Vegas branch of Fry's Electronics. Not only did the whole Chinese thing confuse me, but the fact that it was running an obscure Linux distribution that nobody has ever heard of really did the trick. Check out their web site and tell me what you think. Where is the support? Even if you visit their 'English' site, it is a bit confusing to the average computer user.

To make things even worse, the distribution is old. It is running kernel 2.4.18 with KDE 2.2.2 as its default desktop, and their Xfree86 version is 4.2.0. It isn't even the latest release of ThizLinux. This is software more apt (no pun intended) to be used on a server system... not on a consumer desktop. Why not use one of the better desktop distros such as Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, Libranet, or even (please forgive me for saying this but I have to) LindowsOS? They have better support and usability, are more appealing to the eye, and are far more likely to be accepted by end users than ThizLinux.

What really set me off was my visit to the Las Vegas store this evening. I was simply going to purchase a few peripherals and wandered by the lonely Linux PC in the corner. Sometimes the normally $299 unit goes on sale for around $100. Sure, it's a pretty cheaply built box, but would make a nice toy for such a low price. What caught my eye this time was the addition of a new placard placed squarely on top of the PC chassis. It read something like this:

This computer is running the Linux operating system. It is easily removed and can be replaced by Windows 98 or higher by formatting the hard drive and loading Windows. We will perform this service for you for a fee.

I found that completely unacceptable for two reasons:

• They are immediately telling you that the machine is no good. Insinuating that it's in the best interest of the customer to remove the current operating system and install Windows is ridiculous. Even though the sign does not come right out and say "This OS is a piece of garbage", the sign conveys the message loud and clear.
• They are offering to charge the customer more money to fix a product which they are selling as 'broken' to begin with. Nothing like wearing your soul on your sleeve. Actually, this way of thinking is pure Microsoft. Since they are selling a product they know is garbage, why sell it at all? To be quite honest, as a Linux user I frown upon the insinuation that my chosen OS is somehow inferior to Windows 98.

Maybe I shouldn't care... and in reality it isn't going to make a difference in my day whether they sell those boxes or not. It just bothers me that Linux is being portrayed this way to the general public. My message to the people who run Fry's Electronics (and any other outlet who may sell Linux

Other cool stuff in San Fran: The Exploratorium and California Academy of Sciences.

Heading down the coast, there's The Tech Museum in San Jose

There's Fry's stores all the way through California, and they have neat themes like alien invason, alice in wonder land, ancient rome, etc. (I plan to pilgrimage to all of them at some point.) Although they are getting to be more like a giant consumer electronics store than somewhere to go for parts.

Unfortunately it looks like the Griffith Observatory is closed, but I'm sure there's plenty of other geek stuff in LA that people could point you to. There's just so much that nothing uniquely cool comes to mind.

In San Diego we have Balboa Park which has a aerospace museum, model railroad museum, automotive museum, etc, plus the Zoo. And there's the Wild Animal park. And the Birch Aquarium up here at UCSD. And the Gaslamp area, which has good bars ;-)

Then hop across the country to New York and check out the best of the Barne's and Nobles, the one in downtown Manhattan. Not what you are thinking. This isn't just some big bookstore like every other big bookstore. This is the one that caters to the university students, and they have every textbook imaginable through the annexes. A very geeky way to spend your afternoon.

Then wander down to 13th and Broadway to see Forbidden Planet comics shop, or really any of these comic shops in New York to get your comic jones. While in New York, you might as well check out all the tourist things anyway, cuz you know you will. And when you do, being Aussie and all, you'll want to hit the bar scene at night. Lots of good bar-hopping in Manhattan in the East 70s on 2nd and 1st Avenues.

Computers, books, comics, beer -- what more could a geek ask for. Have fun, mate!

When I lived in the Bay Area, I thought it most wonderful that there was a place where I could get computer chips in one aisle, and potato chips in the next. And wash that all down with a case of Coke for .99 cents.

You said you're a geek, and you'll need to be one to appreciate this suggestion.

Their prices aren't that great, the service sucks, the "themes" of the stores are embarrasing. But you'll not find another place with the selection and diversity of geek-tronics anywhere.

I got tired of all the noise my '486-66 PC was making, so I decided to move the machine further away from my desk. I went down to Fry's and picked up some VGA/keyboard/mouse extension cables, cut a hole in the wall, and ran the cables through the wall. With the machine in the other room, I could barely hear it.

But if put my ear to the wall, I could still discern a hum. And my CPU temp was still consistently above 20C. I considered freon cooling, but that's bad for the environment. I then tried water cooling, but zebra mussels clogged my water pump.

Then ZAM! I thought of Arctic Cooling. So I called up Belkin and ordered 3000 miles of VGA/keyboard/mouse extension cables and ran them along the Alaskan pipeline. I wanted to place the '486 as near to the north pole as possible, but financial constraints forced me to put it outside a raindeer herder's shed in Nome.

When I first hooked everything up, there were some minor glitches to work through. Timber wolves had chewed through the VGA cable in the northern Yukon. This was easily fixed with my trusty portable butane solder gun and Kevlar heat-shrink tubing.

Back in my home office. I couldn't hear the PC at all. And CPU temps hover at just about -18C most of the year.

Now about that faint buzzing produced by my monitor...

Today, thousands of Radio Shack and other electronics stores were all raided by the US Marshalls service for selling and/or manufacturing "anti-circumvention" devices as prohibited by 17-USC-1201 - the DMCA.

Early reports indicate that the items that are causing these retail outlets such grief are commonly known as patch-cables.

According to Harvey Buttnut, well known computer geek, these patch cables can be used to pipe the analog audio from a CD player into the audio input of a computer - allowing the computer to make a recording of the CD with minimal quality loss and no more copy protection.

Lawyers for Sony Corp. at the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham and Howe confirmed that it was their investigation that led to the raids on these stores. Apparently, the lawyers' son had accidentily purchased a DRM protected CD from a music store and wanted to play the content on a portable MP3 player.

Frys does have a website. They are the same as Outpost.com as well.

It's not just small companies. Fry's Electronics has several large stores in California, Texas, Oregon, and Arizona. However, for a long time, the only website they had was frys.com, which only pointed to their ISP services. They had a link to the addresses of the brick and mortar stores, but that's all.

They've recently opened outpost.com, which finally gives people a way to purchase goods on-line. But it is still separate from the brick-and-mortar stores, in that it is strictly an e-commerce site. In fact, even though they have the Fry's Electronics logo on the site, I see no reference to the stores on the site (though I only looked for about 5 minutes). Contrast that to Best Buy or Circuit City, each of which has a store locator prominently located on their web site.

Stores can prevent shoplifting by strip searching you all at the exit, but you won't go back.

I take it you've never been to Fry's.

Seriously, I've given up grammer trolling, but...

Fry's. Not fries. as in Fry's Electroncis.

Don't feel bad, I ordered an old Compaq VRM from the U.K. because even after shipping it was like $30 cheaper than I could find in the U.S. I got this great email from the firm saying that "the goods have been shipped" and I was envisioning a little heroin bonus in the package.

Actually their web address for the online store is not www.Frys.com like so many have quickly posted. The actual online store address is Outpost.com since Fry's bought them out a while ago. Their brick & mortar stores are only here in So Cal as far as I know.

Their prices are usually very good, but almost all of their stuff in the store at good prices is either refurbished, or has been returned before. It seems like about half of their stock on the shelves has return stickers on it. And the customer service there REALLY sucks, assuming you can even find an employee who speaks English.

They do have good deals quite a bit though, I've just learned you have to be careful buying from them.

Sure Frys is regional but it is a pretty good sized region. And hey, you have to start somewhere.
Stores around LA,San Diego,Phoenix, Dallas, Houston to name a few.

Two of the stores are within 30 minutes of my house.

These stores are HUGE as well. The ones I've been to in Burbank, CA and Tempe AZ have lines of about 30 cashiers. Considering the madhouse of customers that flock to these places I imagine they are not slowing down either.

But if you want broader coverage they did buy Outpost.com which IMHO has always been a much more reputable online outlet than walmart.com

You want mother boards, they've got mother boards, chasis, power supplies, video cards, printers, network gear, VCRs, DVD players, TVs, dish washers, you name it.

Anyone who has been to Fry's is reading this and nodding their heads knowingly, but there's a dark side my friend, a very dark side

There's the mile long line to return anything, the unhelpful or rude staff, the mountains of returned items of cheap brand equipment, and wost of all, even if you know exactly what you want, and where it is, it'll still take an hour to leave. There's too much crap that you want, but didn't realize you could get.

Resistance is futile!

It's the shareholders that demand a company do anything for a profit, and it's the shareholders who control the company. The CEO doesn't control the company, because the CEO is just another powerless slave to the shareholders, who can fire him/her at a whim if they so desire.

With privately held companies, the company is controlled by those who work for it. The demand for monstrous returns on investment is removed; most people are willing to sacrifice some money to be able to behave ethically and not screw customers. The company winds up making a more modest profit, but it also is a lot nicer to customers. Last but certainly not least, such a company will pay much more attention to the long term (which is another reason to be nice to customers -- they'll keep coming back).

For a superb example of such a company, take a look at Fry's Electronics. In particular, check the technical details on the ISP they run. Would you ever expect to get that kind of service from a large, publicly held ISP? I don't think so!

it looks like something that should be on geocities. http://www.frys.com

the history of Fry's electronics, INC.

Way off topic...

Strangely, there is no Fry's website. They do own the frys.com domain (apparently for mail), but I can't find any publicly accessible pages.